Hi there! The last chapter was so fun to write... If there's anything you think doesn't add up or you don't understand, feel free to ask in the reviews. But most of it will be revealed in due time...

Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. But all OCs are mine and mine alone.

21st April, House of the Hyugas, time- 23:57,

The doctor had told Sakura not to use her right hand under any circumstances for the next couple of days. Which, she thought to herself as she lay awake in her room, was incredibly infuriating. Not as though she would pay any heed to what that old hag Tsunade would say.

The whole team had withdrawn their activities to regroup outside of the Sunset Reservoir after Sakura had found Ino again. What she had heard from the vents and their attempted murder was enough to have an arrest warrant for the company's whole board of directors. But that would first require a search warrant to find the underground basement layer which Sakura and Naruto had escaped from. The good news; it was a lead, and one which should help them get to the bottom of the case.

At home, Ino had chided her to no end for injuring herself, and Hinata's mother had taken her straight to Dr Tsunade, and fussed over her like she was a child again. Arisa and Hinata had drilled every detail of the ordeal from her and had shared what little they had found out at the main building. And Neji had gone back to HQ to find Shikamaru, who had apparently been caught sleeping on the job. So that night when Neji finally came home, he was very annoyed, which was funny to watch.

But most of that could be considered at least semi normal. And despite their worryings, they were still concentrating on the case at hand. None of it attributed to her lack of sleep.

What did annoy her was that man. She still couldn't understand why he chose to risk his life to save hers on multiple occasions in that basement compound. Had it been her risking herself, it was justified; she was an officer of law, civilian life was her top priority. But he? Why did he save her?

It was a mystery to her, which was the source of her irritation.

The last time someone had made her depend on them like that...it had been when she was still with her brother.

The very thought of those days brought back all the sadness, desperation and helplessness which she felt at that time. She hated reliving those memories.

When she had first left lost coast twelve years ago, she had made her way north to the small area of Eureka. It was a more rural area of western California, and had provided her with little shelter. She was as good as a street rat. She spent those first six months miserably, but had ended up in an orphanage by the end of the first year. But San Fransisco was no longer the city it could once pass for. It was one of the crime hubs of America. Orphanages were no exceptions, and most of the government funding never reached the children, and was used by corrupt management to meet their personal ends.

Sakura had met Ino, Hinata and Arisa- a chance encounter that had taken her life for a positive turn after that. She joined the house of the Hyugas, who were big on adoption. Hinata and Hanabi were the only blood children of Hiashi and his wife, the rest, like Ino, Arisa, Shikamaru, Kiba, and even other friends who were not in the FBI, like the multilingual Tenten, who was working abroad in the intelligence agency, were all orphans. Suffice to say, her life was almost normal after she was adopted by the Hyuga.

But far before that, even before she came to lost coast with Gaara, she was somewhere else. A place she had vague fuzzy memories of. It resembled an institute or orphanage of some kind. But the only thing she associated with that place was a sharp feeling of unease that sat with her whenever she tried to think of that time- which was not very often in the first place. She seldom thought about it, and had probably forgotten willingly.

The first time she had ever depended on someone was when she was with her brother. He had taken her far away from whatever bad memories surrounded her infancy, and had been her constant companion until he disappeared. Whenever she thought of him, or all of the things he did for his little sister, the conflicting warmth and sadness which arose at the memory of his presence and then of his disappearance left her raw and numb with fresh pain. Even twelve years after he had gone, his loss was still as sharp as a honed blade. But despite all of the pain, his memory to her was one of warmth, happiness, and love. Her brother had always been there for her to rely on.

Yet why did she feel a similar, if still subdued bubble of warmth when she thought of that strange man who had forced her to rely on him as well?

April 22nd, 2032, Apartment of Sasuke Uchiha, time- daybreak.

The elusive nightly visitor to Sasuke's house came mostly in the cover of darkness. However, on rare occasions, such as this one, when the sun broke over the horizon before he could leave, one could glimpse the form of his cloak, black and dotted with red clouds, which he donned as he stood in Sasuke's bedroom.

"You made quick work of the elevator. Good job." Sasuke said to him.

"And yet, fate presented you with a perfect opportunity to capture her, and you let her escape? " His voice was low and smooth.

"Well, perhaps I could have done a better job if I hadn't been so preoccupied with trying to save our lives." He responded sarcastically.

"Foolish actions. How much did she hear? It's dangerous for us to not know how much of our involvement she is aware of ."

"I have no idea how long she was in that vent for. It wasn't as though I was able to interrogate her when my top priority was getting out of there alive ."

"Clearly, you are making no progress on your own. We must assume the worst. Have you arranged for a suitable cover story? And drawn up the necessary paperwork? "

"What do you take me for? It was the first thing I did upon returning."

"At least there's one thing you can do right. But it's evident that you can't manage the task alone with these foolish actions. "

Sasuke glared at him about to say something.

"We cannot afford to have the FBI or the Hyuga on our tail. From now on, I take an active part."

Short boring chapter with no real action, right? Wrong.

I'm going on vacation! So no, that does not mean no new updates, it just means that I'll publish this one short explanatory chapter before I get on with the story plot.

By the way, how did you all like Sasuke's unfinished dream? XD Review already! If you have the time to read, tell me what you think. Input is really important.

~Raven